A method for reducing transmission polling overhead of packets within a node of a communications network. This invention involves setting session ready bits in the line adaptor modules of the node. These bits are then used to inform a given module as to which modules of the node have packets that are bound for the given module. A given module of the node will not transmit a pacing message (YT control message) to another module unless it knows that the other module has a packet to transmit to the given module.